What Is Kohl Eyeliner, Really?

Play word association with "kohl" and the same descriptors tend to come up: inky, creamy, Cleopatra-y. But we recently found out what kohl actually is—and the answer is surprising.

It turns out there isn't much truth to the notion that kohl pencils are intensely dark, smooth, and supereasy to blend because—get this—there's no such thing as real kohl eyeliner. At least, not in the U.S. "Kohl is a mineral that's never been FDA approved for cosmetics, because the way it's mined means it always contains lead," says cosmetic chemist Ni'Kita Wilson. "When you see the word 'kohl' on a package, it's just referring to the color." And the color of kohl isn't actually dark black (go figure). "It's a grayish black, the color of pencil lead," says Wilson. "You can bet there was a chemist in a lab looking at a piece of kohl and mixing black, yellow, red, and gray pigments to match it." And then they add wax to make it solid, just like any other eyeliner pencil. "There's no real difference in the texture of a kohl liner," says Wilson. "It's either expensive and blendable because it contains high-quality ingredients or it's not." And there you have it.